The two lens kit is still probably considerably better than the tamron
17-200 though. That might be very reasonable if you aren't planning to
ever get $1,700 lenses or mess around with a bunch of old manual focus
primes.

The 18-55 is the best zoom in it's class. 55 at 1.5x=82.5mm full frame 35mm.
If you also need a true telezoom, I would look at the 75-300 or 80-200
offerings.

Unlike many here, I'm just an enthusiastic amateur.  I recently (past
six months) made the same decisions you're making now.  I bought the
Nikon D70s, and added the Nikon 18-70 and 55-200 zooms.  Very happy
with all three pieces, but made some money selling my film equipment,
heard about the Nikon 18-200, read lots of discussion of it pro/con,
went down to my local camera store and got on the waiting list, tried
out the owner's personal 18-200, and ended up buying one - new - on
eBay.

As an amateur, and someone who takes lots of photos on the road on
motorcycle trips, having just the one lens and not having to switch
back and forth is great.  I'm personally incapable of telling the
difference between shots taken at the same focal length with any of the
three lenses, but I also never blow my photos up to huge sizes - 8x10
is the largest I've ever gone.

I will say that the 18-200 is significantly heavier than either the
18-70 or the 55-200, but that hasn't kept me from leaving the two
lighter lenses at home most of the time since I got the 18-200.

Just more grist for the mill as you try to make your decision.  Good
luck, whatever you decide!

It's tough to argue with a Nikkor lens but there are some good third party
lenses.  Some may even be better than their Nikkor counterparts.  The only
problem with most Nikkor's comapred to third party lenses is the cost but
the investment seems to be worthwhile.

I do not yet have any Nikkor lenses.  I bought my D50 body only from Cord.
I purchased separately a Tokina 28-70mm AT-X lens.  I am very happy with it,
it's build-quality is second-to-none.  The image quality is very good.
Here's one I like taken with this lens
http://ntotrr.smugmug.com/photos/50519191-M.jpg

I was able to pick up to other lenses on the cheap via eBay - a Tamron
28-200mm and a Sigma 70-300mm APO.  The Tamron is for my wife to use when
she does the snapshots at family events, etc.  It's a fine lens considering
it cost me $ 69.00 and it is very compact, that's the main reason for
picking it up.  It has a long range for the snapshots it will be used for
and it works well http://ntotrr.smugmug.com/photos/58881883-M.jpg

The Sigma 70-300mm APO is the best bang-for-your buck long zoom.  It will
cost you less than $ 200.00, but make sure it is the APO version, the
non-APO version is adequate at best.  Here's one
http://ntotrr.smugmug.com/photos/59788546-M.jpg.

I have a Sigma DSLR so I've got a bit of experience with Sigma lenses.  Some
of their EX lenses are excellent, IMO.  I've got the 50mm EX macro, the
105mm EX macro, the 17-35mm EX, and the 24-70mm EX.  The 50mm and the 105mm
macros are very sharp.  This was taken with the 50mm EX macro, the 105 mm is
just as sharp http://ntotrr.smugmug.com/photos/9540650-M.jpg.  The 17-35mm
EX is good, not great.  The newer version being sold is supposedly better.
The 24-70mm EX is a great walk-around lens.  It hardly spends any time off
of my SD9.  It's a good choice for the D50, IMO and I would have bought one
except I couldn't spare the extra change so I went for the Tokina which was
much less.  Here's one taken with the 24-70mm EX
http://ntotrr.smugmug.com/photos/30824225-M.jpg.

I like my 18-70 plus another benefit of having a Nikon lens is resale value
if you don't like it...